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#3650 · 🐝 bees, wasps & ants

Eastern Yellowjacket

Vespula maculifrons

🐝 Bees, wasps & ants 📍 outside Europe
8 photos from iNaturalist (Creative Commons) · credits & licences
  1. 1. © sankax · CC BY-NC 4.0
  2. 2. © Judy Gallagher · CC BY-SA 4.0
  3. 3. © Lee Elliott · CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
  4. 4. © solomon v. hendrix · CC BY-NC 4.0
  5. 5. © psweet · CC BY-SA 4.0
  6. 6. © fee1983 · CC BY-NC 4.0
  7. 7. © psweet · CC BY-SA 4.0
  8. 8. © Cody Chapman · CC BY-NC 4.0
Eastern Yellowjacket, photo 1 of 8
1/8 © sankax · CC BY-NC 4.0

what is it?

The eastern yellow jacket or eastern yellowjacket ( Vespula maculifrons ) is a wasp found in eastern North America. Although most of their nests are subterranean, they are often considered a pest due to their nesting in recreational areas and buildings. This yellow jacket is a social insect, living in colonies of hundreds to thousands of individuals. Along with their subfamily, Vespinae, this species demonstrates supportive parental care for offspring, separation of reproductive and sterile castes, and overlapping...

base stats

  • NL sightings 0iNaturalist, research grade
  • worldwide 43,601iNaturalist observations

Bars compare against all animals on log scales: up to 300,000 Dutch and 600,000 worldwide sightings (the most-seen species), 150 t (blue whale), 30 m and 400 years (Greenland shark).

fun facts

  • No confirmed wild sightings in the Netherlands on iNaturalist: you'd have to travel for this one.
  • 43,601 observations worldwide on iNaturalist.

fact sheet

English
Eastern Yellowjacket
scientific name
Vespula maculifrons
class
Insecta
order
Hymenoptera
family
Vespidae
sightings in NL
0
sightings worldwide
43,601
GBIF records in NL
0
weight
—
length
—
lifespan
—

relatives· Vespidae

Sources: iNaturalist taxon 119994, Wikidata Q5330640, GBIF 1311693, Wikipedia (EN). Intro text from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0).Updated 2026-10-24.

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